Not listening

Submitted by yelvington on March 20, 2008 - 9:14pm

Let's hope I am among the last to comment on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, because honestly, it's getting tiresome. But I have to ask: Is anybody listening to anybody else? And is the press working toward understanding, or just redistributing noise?

I spent some time tonight actually listening to the YouTube snippets of Rev. Wright's intemperate ranting, which is being spun as "racist" and "hate speech" by many of the jabbering television commentators who seem to be mostly interested in perpetuating drama and not really interested in the issue of racism in America.

The sound of paradigms being shifted in the morning

Submitted by yelvington on March 18, 2008 - 7:28pm

Neil McIntosh loves his little new Eee: "Don’t you just love the sound of.. er… paradigms being shifted in the morning?"

I've written previously about the significance of disruptive, low-end products in general, and Linux for consumers in particular. And I've noted that my kids, my mother, and my mother-in-law are all running Linux.

Awesome advice for working journalists

Submitted by yelvington on March 15, 2008 - 3:41pm

Laid-off sports columnist Paul Oberjuerge, cut loose from the San Berdardino Sun, has had some time to mull it over and has produced a beautifully written and spot-on accurate list of "Tips on Keeping Your Print Journalism Job." It's so well done that I read it aloud to my (non-journalist) wife.

I won't spoil the experience by listing the 10 bullet points, but note that "embrace the Web" is Number One.

Looking for a coach/leader

Submitted by yelvington on March 12, 2008 - 1:35pm

We're restarting our search at Morris DigitalWorks for a director of audience growth. This is a senior management position with significant responsibility. It involves working with all levels of leadership at the 13 daily Morris Publishing Group newspapers from Florida to Alaska, and some travel is required.

Waking up the editorial page

Submitted by yelvington on March 4, 2008 - 7:39pm

Earlier today I and a lot of other folks got an email from Vikki Porter, who's leading a Knight Digital Media Center conference for editorial page editors. "We are urging them to build credibility with their users by having the courage to send users elsewhere for info when they can't meet the need. As expected they are appalled. They want hard data to take home to convince their legacy managers this is a good idea."

Tonight's election coverage

Submitted by yelvington on March 4, 2008 - 4:58pm

George Bernard Shaw died too early to enjoy the fruits of 24-hour TV news channels, but his famous condemnation of newspaper journalism would apply: "Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation." Tonight's election coverage is sure to provide plenty of fresh examples.

Internet leads as news source ... or does it?

Submitted by yelvington on March 2, 2008 - 1:17pm

A new report from polling firm Zogby International has troubling signals for conventional media of all types:

70% of Americans think journalism is important to the quality of life in their communities.
67% think traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news.
32% said Internet sites are their most trusted source for news and information.
22% said newspapers are the most trusted.
21% said television is the most trusted.
15% said radio is the most trusted.